October 31, 2010

My costume for this halloween was Pauline Rieper/Parker, one half of the notorious Parker-Hulme teenage murdering duo, found guilty in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1954 for the murder of Pauline's mother, thus providing the basis for Peter Jackson's 1994 film Heavenly Creatures.Together they created an elaborate fantasy realm, 'The Fourth World', and hoped to sell their epic tales of adventure for adaptation to Hollywood films.Pauline is best remembered for her detailed diaries, hatred of Orson Welles, and her love of Mario Lanza and Juliet Hulme.Pauline's mother was viewed as the one stumbling block in the two girls' relationship, as both sets of parents began fearing the friendship bordered on homosexuality, and had decided complete separation was the only way to cure this 'mental illness'. Pauline and Juliet reasoned the only way they could be assured of staying together would be to bludgeon Mrs Rieper with half a brick in a stocking in a secluded part of Victoria Park.

Excerpts from Pauline's diaries:

We have decided how sad it is for other people that theycannot appreciate our genius . . .. . . but we hope the book will help them to do so alittle, though no one could fully appreciate us.

To think that so much could happen in so little time,caused by so few. A terrible tragedy has occurred . . .

Mother woke me this morning and started lecturing mebefore I was properly awake, which I thought was somewhat unfair. Shehas brought up the worst possible threat now. She said that if myhealth did not prove I could never see the Hulmes again. The thought istoo dreadful. Life would be unbearable without Deborah . . .

I rang Deborah immediately as I had to tell someonesympathetic how I loathed Mother.

One thing Deborah and I are sticking to: througheverything, we sink or swim together.

Anger against Mother boiled up inside me as it is she whois one of the main obstacle in my path. Suddenly a means of riddingmyself of this obstacle occurred to me. If she were to die . . .

It was so hot today I had to remove the pots from the window sill. The windows are the kind which open inwards, so the plants - an african violet, a strange shrub with purple leaves, and sundry others languishing and ill-kept - huddled in a cluster below the sill, dethroned for a breath of fresh air.

I leaned outside welcoming the lazy breeze infiltrating the soupy confines of the lounge, strong enough to scatter the dust particles caught in the direct sunlight, but not to stir the leaves of the relegated plants. The odour of bacon filters through from a neighbouring open window. I once knew a girl who gave up twelve years of devout vegetarianism for the smell of bacon. The smell was so pungent, she decided on the spot to abandon all her previous beliefs about the 'perils of the flesh', and try a morsel. It was the beginning of the end, really.Now when I see rashers sizzling, the rind blistering and distorting, covered in a film of oil, I think of her mouth filling up with saliva.

October 20, 2010

There is an easier and more effective and entertaining way of learning the verb forms, though: By reading Swedish texts, newspaper articles, comic strips, and novels written in an everyday language (translations of Agatha Christie crime novels or love-stories by Barbara Cartland or whatever you personally prefer), you will soon meet all the common verbs - they are actually not that many - in a meaningful context, you will see their function in different sentences, how they are used in idiomatic phrases, and you will not have to spend time on the numerous verb forms that theoretically exist but are rarely used. The first pages of such a book in Swedish may naturally take some time to tackle, but it will not be long before you will be able to recognize and understand an amazingly large number of words. With a basic knowledge of the verb system in Swedish it will be even easier.

Now to begin my collection of Agatha Christie crime novels in Swedish for educational purposes.

October 17, 2010

obsessed with the forest green penguin crime & mystery titles. the only problem lies in whether to begin collecting the works of Ngaio Marsh or Raymond Chandler?and so to begin the florence wild crime library.

Whilst working at Special Collections daintily vacuuming mold off rare and old books, I began taking Ngaio Marsh novels off the shelves one by one to reread as I cleaned. I would be satisfied if my personal library held the complete works of Ngaio Marsh, Raymond Chandler, Arthur Conan Doyle and Ian Fleming, along with sundry others.

I am always surprised I can read murder mysteries again and again, I would have thought the interest and intrigue would have worn out after one reading.

October 7, 2010

A Wairarapa Christian minister is crusading against what he says is Masonic paganism by renouncing his library card.

John Cromarty, of St David's Church in Carterton, objects to a Masonic Lodge being used as a temporary library because he says the group is connected to witchcraft, the Wairarapa Times-Age reports.

In a letter to Carterton Mayor Gary McPhee, Mr Cromarty said he and his wife had handed in their library cards and were asking their friends not to visit the lodge, which was housing the town's books while a new events centre was built.

He said while Freemasonry did some good in the community and portrayed a facade of being compatible with Christianity, its foundations were rooted in witchcraft and paganism.

A past master and a Freemason of the lodge, Warwick Cashmore, said Mr Cromarty's attitude was extremely disappointing.

"The basic tenants of freemasonry are brotherly love, relief, and truth," he said.

Draughts was always my favourite board game, because I could beat my father at it. When one of our pieces successfully outmanoeuvred the opposition to be "kinged", we always announced 'King-Thing!' in a sing-song voice.I like to imagine these young men are having a quick game of draughts at the beach, rather than a long, drawn out chess ordeal. Chess has no place at the beach. Draughts however, would be a good way to pass half an hour or so between having your bbq lunch with a draught of cold drink and having your second swim.

(However being from Arizona this is probably in some desert landscape.)photo from Cline Library archives @ Northern Arizona Universityvia

October 4, 2010

Shelving Trolleys as bookshelves. Reminiscent for me of a work I installed at Elam's Fine Arts Library in 2007, when I catalogued my room by Dewey Decimal System and filled trolleys with random room detritus waiting to be shelved. No more messy floors!Would solve pretty much every storage problem, with space for the 'q' books as well. Probably the only piece of furniture I want to buy.But only if I could sort my books by Dewey Decimal System, naturally.Perhaps this could be the storage and display model for my dream of running a private library/archive/business/entrepreneurial scheme.If the whole artist hoopla falls through, you see.